Shots Ring Out During Ferguson Protest

A barrage of gunfire rang out at a Ferguson, Mo., protest late Tuesday, moments after a vehicle mowed down a protester on the two-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death.

The bullets — at least 20 rounds — erupted at around 9:15 p.m., within 30 seconds of the collision along W. Florissant Ave., the strip where rioters razed businesses during a spate of anti-police brutality demonstrations in 2014.

The victim had stepped onto the roadway as a crowd of protesters walked along the shoulder when a white car slammed him to the pavement, as seen in a live stream of the protest.

Shots were fired moments later as screaming witnesses surrounded the man and others chased the vehicle into the McDonald’s parking lot.

Protesters dived behind parked cars, but it’s unclear if anyone was wounded by the gunfire.

A witness said the shooter was targeting the vehicle whose female driver hit the man and tried to flee from an angry mob that chased after her.

“A young lady pulled out a gun and tried shooting out her tires,” Ferguson Freedom Fighters organizer Larry Miller told the Daily News. “They were chasing the car, she was driving to get away because she didn’t know it was a dead end in the McDonald’s parking lot.”

Another video, posted to Facebook, shows a woman screaming, “Somebody needs to stop her,” before the shooter opened fire.

The impact knocked one of the victim’s shoes off and left him lying on the road in a fetal position until a friend carried him to safety. The unidentified man had blood on his face, visible in photos from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Miller said the shooter vanished as police descended upon the chaotic scene.

Despite video of the incident, Ferguson spokesman Jeff Small said that no evidence that someone had been struck was found and he declined to speculate as to why the shots were fired.

Meanwhile, a relative identified by witnesses as the victim’s brother took the wounded young man to a nearby hospital.

“We didn’t intend for this to happen,” Miller added.

The victim’s brother returned to the site of collision in tears and told witnesses that his brother is in critical condition.

The protests along Florissant Ave. followed a somber Tuesday morning vigil at St. Peters Cemetery in the nearby city of Normandy, where a tombstone for Brown, an 18-year-old black man fatally shot by a white police officer, was recently placed.

After the shooting in Ferguson, four protesters were arrested at the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis during an outdoor performance of “Aida,” starring former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams, according to KMOV-TV.

Demonstrators hoisted a large “Black Lives Matter” banner from a staircase adjacent from the stage while chanting.